Registered

I am from the Denver metro area and have not fished at Pueblo in a couple of years & I want to get one more keeper Walleye this season ...

When and where do they inspect? Both ramps?
When does the inspection station shut down?
Do they only allow launching at the North Marina?
Do they chain the ramps after sundown like the old rumor said?
When does Pueblo close to boating all together?

Registered

When and where do they inspect? Both ramps? - Yes 5am to 6pm
When does the inspection station shut down? - 6pm - 5am
Do they only allow launching at the North Marina? North and South
Do they chain the ramps after sundown like the old rumor said? Yes. 6pm - 5am
When does Pueblo close to boating all together? Never. You can always boat. It's just a matter of when you want to take out.

Registered

I've asked the inspection guys at North Shore about what they are gonna do if the lake ices. Because there have been times when I've launched and broken up the ice with my boat and gotten to open water.

They say they are gonna man those stations even when theres ice. Sounds good to me.

Only the hard core need apply.

Only change I'd like to see is them going from 6-6 to 7-7PM. Same number of hours but better fishing IMO-that late afternoon when the water has warmed up a degree or two can be the best fishing.

Registered

it is 5AM till 6PM they open at 5 for the duck hunters they will be open all winter, if you launch with ice on the water watch out for your transducer if it is more than 3/8 inch you need to break it as you put in

Registered

Thanks for all your feed back but I am now really confused about the ramp closure issue ??

If they lock down the docks how are guys like "Rivrunnr1" getting the boats out of the water late ... errr ... I should say early in the morning?

This is the quote from the "Crazy ... on Pueblo " post made on about 11/20/10 (I think).

"... Crazy night. We put the gas in and motored back to the marina. Got out of there around 1:45am. A bit scary....but a mass adventure! A successful vampire moon walleye trip with only one minor hitch ..."

See why I am confused. Do they just leave the boat in the water and tie it up at the dock? ... then pick it up the next day ... or did they have to hand-haul it up that ramp and over the gate? or do they just live there at the marina ?

Registered

I want to forewarn you that it may have been a mistake to ask me about my experience. Well, and let me preface this venting session by apologizing for what is coming,

… But since you asked … Let me tell you my little story to allow you to “… imagine what could happen to my boat behind the locked gate at the north marina.”

A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away … a NAIVE fisherman went fishing ...
I was up at Carter for a long weekend in late June about 12 years ago with my whole Famn Damily (Mom, Dad, Brothers, Kids ...). We were all looking forward to an excellent camping and fishing adventure.

On the first day, Friday, I came in off the lake from trolling at about 23:00 and decided not to pull the boat out. There was a group of shore fisherman near the dock on the North end so I pulled up on the sand beach about 50 to 60 yards to the East of them. It took two trips but I got all my rods, lures, packs, and cooler and packed it out and put it in the truck (thank God for that). Unfortunately, the gas tank was semi-permanently installed under the main seat so I could not pull that out and the motor is just a simple outboard (Yamaha) and did not have a key to disable it.

When making the trips up to the truck with my stuff, I walked by the shore fisherman and made some small talk (for fisherman anyway) with them … how are you fairing?, what are you using?, etc. They seemed nice enough and it appeared that they were young adults (mid-20s) and teenagers.

Anyway, I had left the boat out before but I rarely frequented Carter and had never left it out on the water there at Carter. Where I typically left the boat out overnight was in close proximity to the camping area. By close proximity I mean within 50 yards. I had done this often enough that I even had a set of four mooring stakes and a sledge hammer onboard to make the two “X’s”, one starboard and one port, for mooring to the beach shoreline. This method secures your boat in a perpendicular orientation to the waters edge and it will generally not rotate in the wind and waves and grind your hull on the beach.

At Carter, as you can imagine, the place was packed in June and the only camping slots available were up in the main North camping areas. This camping area is about 300 to 400 yards away from the water and on the north side of the road that runs around the rim of the reservoir. Further, because of the topography it is not possible to see the shoreline from the campsites.

I left the boat there moored to the shore stakes and drove the truck and empty trailer back to the camp to get some sleep. I got up early the next morning, just before sunrise, so that I could catch the early bite.

When I got down to the shore the boat was gone, the stakes were gone, and there were all kinds of footprints in the sand (not mine) where the boat had been moored. I ran up to the tackle shop/ranger station at the top of the boat ramp and told them someone had stolen my boat.

The store clerk called up a ranger from the marina. The ranger took down my info and was about to notify the other rangers on her walkie-talkie to be on the lookout for my boat when a call came in that said “we have a wayward vessel on western shore … no occupants … it is about half full of water … obvious hull damage … we’re preparing to tow it in to the marina …”. The ranger asked them to give a description of the boat and their responses matched my boat.

When they got it back to the marina it was obvious that someone had taken it for a joy ride. All the tie-down/mooring ropes were inside and one of the seats was cut up like someone was whittling on it. The batteries were dead (submerging batteries and electrical switch gear will do that) so I could not use my bilge pump to pre-drain the water. When I was loading it on the trailer I had to first wade out (BRRRR) and pulled the bung plug. Then I partially cranked it up onto the trailer and allowed it to drain some. I did this because water is heavy and the extra weight from the water can buckle your axle (e.g. 100 gallons in your boat weighs 850 Lb. … nearly HALF A TON). I repeated this pull it up a little … let it drain some … pull it up a little … etc. several times before finally pulling it up the rest of the way. When I drove it out I let it sit on the ramp to drain the rest of the way and it seemed like it drained constant for about ten minutes.

Anyway, GRRRRRR!!!!, there were multiple cracks and gouge marks in the bottom hull of the boat. Fortunately, the motor, the transom, and the transducer were undamaged. Unfortunately, it took me about a month working on it in the evenings and on weekends to get the hull repaired. Just in case you have never tried it, it is seriously not easy to repair the bottom of a boat when you do not have a hoisting system to get it OFF THE TRAILER. AGAIN, GRRRRRRR!!!

Now you, too, can “… imagine what could happen to my boat behind the locked gate at the north marina.” … but seriously … I’m thinking “It’ll be Fine ,,, if YOU leave YOUR boat out”.

Registered

Before the inspections/gates my buddies and I fished about 25 or 30 nights each season until 1, 2, or 3 am. It was great, there are few people on the lake on friday nights.

Since they put up the gates/chains we haven't stayed out past ramp closing time. Don't want to leave the boat at the dock unattended, and don't want to get stuck in storm. One of these (summer) days we will do an all nighter and sleep in the boat when we get tired.

walleye seeker said:

the nice thing about the n.marina is you can rent a slip for the night and your boat will be behind the locked gate. i know of a guy that dosn't even take his rods out and has never had a problem

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